Yeah, I wonder what killed it?

[sld72382]

Was rummaging through the email queue and found this one. I let another person answer it because I didn't want to tell them how i really felt. Basically, it was a customer who wanted to know how to get data off a dead external hard drive. Drive manufacturer omitted - I'll call them "drive mfr."

Email:

"Hello, I'm writing you in hopes you could help me (or guide me to the right place) on how to get data off our external hard drive that crashed. It was working only half the time - sometimes it would work but other times it would either refuse to be accessed or it would freeze the system. My husband looked in the manual and it said in order to call (drive mfr) he needed the serial number. So he picked the hard drive up while it was running and turned it upside down to get the serial number. Now the drive makes a funny noise and can't be accessed at all. I'm blaming my husband for braking the drive, my husband insists that it was on it's way out anyway. The (drive mfr) is no help, even though the drive is less than a year old they are refusing to replace it citing "misuse and abuse" and quite frankly treated my husband like an idiot, after all nowhere does it say not to touch the drive while it's running! So now (drive mfr) lost a customer. But going forward, I want to know how can get the data off the drive. Do I bring it in or...."

The rest of the email was asking routine things like data recovery prices, etc. What got me was how nonchalant she acted towards her husband destroying the drive and getting mad at the drive manufacturer.

[BlaqueKatt]

It was working only half the time - sometimes it would work but other times it would either refuse to be accessed or it would freeze the system.

and she didn't think to backup the data while it was doing this?

Yes Katt just learned her lesson in not backing up data-didn't lose anything important-so wasn't really worth backing up-but I now know to do so even if the compy is running fine......

If anyone's interested-power supply blew-released the magic smoke, took out the motherboard, processor, video card, and hard drive-seriously the little circuitboard on the HD has scorch marks on it...only thing salvageable was the case and the dvd drive...however I did find some neat stuff inside the HD that made for really cool/unique jewelry....

[HYHYBT]

While you're not really supposed to move a running hard drive, it doesn't *usually* kill them; otherwise, laptops would die every time you shifted position. And after all, it *was* acting up already, when it was too young to expect it; why shouldn't she be mad at the manufacturer? And her husband as well, and herself for not having a backup, but still, they should last a ##### of a lot longer than a year.

[earl colby pottinger]

Sucks

The manufacturer is being sucky.

The woman was sucky.

The husband however was the real sucky one.

No matter how how or bad the manufacturer was I bet the data was recoverable.

The woman did not do her backups, but the data was recoverable.

The husband however, destroyed the drive. And I do not believe that the included docs do not somewhere say not to move the drive while it it on!

[sld72382]

While you're not really supposed to move a running hard drive, it doesn't *usually* kill them; otherwise, laptops would die every time you shifted position. And after all, it *was* acting up already, when it was too young to expect it; why shouldn't she be mad at the manufacturer? And her husband as well, and herself for not having a backup, but still, they should last a ##### of a lot longer than a year.

Aren't laptop hard drives made to stand up to being moved around?

Oh and I've seen some hard drives die way before 1 year. When you're dealing with mass-produced mechanical product there's always going to be some bad batches.

[Crawling_Chaos]

Ouch...

"Head -> Platter" meet "Head -> Desk".

[Aut]

And I do not believe that the included docs do not somewhere say not to move the drive while it it on!

If it didn't, you know it will soon.

[lordlundar]

Aren't laptop hard drives made to stand up to being moved around?

Moved around while not powered? Yes.
Moved around while running? Sort of (even odds on a scratched platter depending on how it was moved)
Flipped over while not powered? Yes
Flipped over while running? Oh HELL NO!

[PCGameGuy]

The irony is that an external drive is best used AS the backup for the internal drive. Someone saved a few ennies on installation of a new internal drive methinks, and cost themselves a lot of grief. :P

[Midorikawa]

The irony is that an external drive is best used AS the backup for the internal drive. Someone saved a few ennies on installation of a new internal drive methinks, and cost themselves a lot of grief. :P

Not always. There's people who have things like a Mac Mini or similar small Dells that don't have room for anything more than what it comes with. My dad has a Mac Mini. Most of his data is on an external, and not technically backed up (I DID set him up with a RAID1, since externals generally aren't to be trusted.) Regardless, depending on how the drive was being moved, it should still be able to put up with it. Modern drives are a lot more stable than they used to be.

Merely flipping the drive over shouldn't have killed it if it were in good working order. This drive, however, was already having problems, when it was moved, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

If this is a head crash, most of the data should be recoverable, save for whatever it was hitting on when it crashed. If it were a spindle or bearing failure, it'll be hard to recover the data. If it were a drive electronics failure (least likely), the data is 100% recoverable.

[grokit]

Merely flipping the drive over shouldn't have killed it if it were in good working order. This drive, however, was already having problems, when it was moved, and it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Maybe, the gyroscopic effect on some drives can be pretty vicious, so twisting it around like that could have a fairly bad effect if you're unlucky.

Solid state FTW!

[Shalom]

The question in my mind is, when he flipped it over, did he lay it down gently on the desk, or did he drop it from a couple inches up?

I've never dropped a running hard drive [1] but I've lost two of them when things fell on them: one time I was using my laptop on the floor and something fell out of my shirt pocket, landing right next to the keyboard, which is where the HD lives on that one, and the other time, I had the lid off my deskbottom machine (can't call it a desktop) and an empty non-alcoholic-beer bottle fell off the desk. Serves me right for drinking that crap anyway.

(I've also seen drives that say they will work flat or standing on either edge, but not upside down.)

[1]OK, once my wife's laptop slid off the pile of papers on her desk and hit the floor. Dell laptops are built physically tough, whatever you may think of their inner workings; the only thing damaged was the PCMCIA ethernet card, which snapped its external casing. Now there's a bare printed circuit board sticking out of the cardbus slot. Looks weird but works fine.

[Midorikawa]

Maybe, the gyroscopic effect on some drives can be pretty vicious, so twisting it around like that could have a fairly bad effect if you're unlucky.

True. I'll give you that.

<offtopic> nice avatar. Wife's never seen the show, so we're going through all 10 seasons together. It's been fun revisiting all those episodes I haven't seen in years. :-) </offtopic>

[Chromatix]

When I had a fan bearing go bad in my MBP, I used the gyroscopic effect to trigger it in the shop to demonstrate it (since it was an intermittent fault).

It doesn't harm a modern HD (or fan) that's in good condition. HDs on the brink of failure can be very very fragile, though.

[BaristaTrav]

Nah ah.. unless this drive's internals were built using elmer's glue or chewing gum it's highly unlikely that merely turning it over should have killed it, unless as someone had previously mentioned it was already on its way out. Unless maybe the guy violently turned it over and shook it with rage. However, the manufacturer now does have the right to deny replacement since she admitted it..